Argentine officials in Tierra del Fuego faced a furious backlash from local government employees forced to attend a political rally about the Falkland Islands.
The event was organised on Thursday by Walter Vuoto, the mayor of the province’s capital city, Ushuaia.
Municipal staff were told they had to attend the rally, despite being given the day off work.
The atmosphere turned ugly after Vuoto and Senator Maria Dure arrived over two hours late to the meeting.
One member of the audience openly rebuked the mayor for making attendance mandatory.
Another shouted, “Stop making politics with Malvinas”, before storming out of the conference room.
As he made his exit, the man was cheered by other members of the audience, who then started to whistle loudly in protest.
With the situation becoming increasingly tense, people started to leave the auditorium, as the rally descended into chaos.
Later mayor Vuoto tried to explain away the embarrassing scenes, saying “the Malvinas is a highly sensitive issue for the people of Tierra del Fuego”.
Politicians from the southern province have frequently sought to stir up political tensions over the Falkland Islands.
In July, the province’s governor Gustavo Melella criticised the islanders for carrying out a public consultation over plans to drill for oil in the Sea Lion basin and threatened legal action.
“We categorically and forcefully reject the new illegal British action, which aims to carry out a popular consultation in the Malvinas Islands to advance the exploitation and plundering of our hydrocarbon resources in flagrant violation of international law,” he said.
“Just as we did with all the companies that tried to carry out actions in Malvinas without our due authorisation as legitimate provincial authorities, we will proceed in the same way and we will make use of the legal tools at our disposal in pursuit of our rights.”
The governor added that the drilling would inflict “unprecedented economic and environmental damage” not just on the Falklands but also on the wider region.
Argentina’s president told the BBC in an interview in May that he wanted his country to annex the Falklands through peaceful diplomatic negotiations.
He admitted it could take decades to try to gain sovereignty over the Falkland Islands from the UK and said Argentina does not “seek conflict”.
Mr Milei promised a “roadmap” for the islands to become Argentine, on the 42nd anniversary of the Falklands War in early April.
